>Date: Thu, 07 Sep 95
>From: "Robert Schultz"
......
>The real power of rational choice theory in my experience has never been in
predicting/explaining INDIVIDUAL behaviour (now that's tough psychology), but in
predicting/explaining how GROUPS perform in the aggregate.

.......

Us economists grapple with the same issues: at the individual level, our models
aren't terribly accurate, but in the aggregate they perform better -- the number
of players in most international trade and domestic industries is rather large
(not to mention consumers). Politics, however, is often swayed by at most a
small handful of individuals (or so I assume) so that the statistical power of
rat choice models will be lower. But since my sense is that other tools (psych
analysis of leaders etc) are even worse, rat choice ought to add value,
particularly if used as a complement to other approaches. Of course, then we're
back to the interdisciplinary quandry that others have touched upon -- and since
the W&L [Washington and Lee? -- moderator] politics dept can't agree on what
"politics" is, I suspect it can get pretty hard for political scientists even to
communicate among themselves....

===========================
Michael J. Smitka
Associate Professor of Economics
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia 24450 USA
(540) 463 - 8625 Tel & Voicemail
(540) 463 - 8639 Fax
===========================